Time, Time, Time
by Cekeater
Summary: Set a year after "The End of Time." Wes and Eric find startling evidence at a crime scene that only points in one direction. The future..
1. Chapter 1

"We got another one," Wes opened his eyes to see Eric standing over him, "It's a mess. The silver guardians and I are going to check it out. And I think they would appreciate it if their _leader _was there to help"

Wes laughed and slowly got out of bed. As soon as he got up, Eric threw his bag to him and nearly made Wes fall back to where he started.

"Jeez man, what's wrong with you?" Wes chuckled. But as he looked at Eric's face he knew this was no laughing matter.

"C'mon, you should see this for yourself."

Wes, after changing into his silver guardian suit, followed Eric out the door of his apartment. Ever since the clock tower was destroyed, Wes had been looking for a place to stay. Eric was in the same boat, so they found an apartment together and have been rooming there ever since.

"Where are we headed?" Wes asked as he stepped into their SGT (silver guardian truck).

"The old warehouse by JFK street."

Wes nodded and they continued their trip in silence. Eric had always been the serious type and a man of few words, but Wes knew that something bad must've happened. Something very bad.

They arrived at the warehouse and as soon as Wes stepped out of the truck, he could smell it. Blood. He felt his stomach quaver as he and eric approached the backdoor of the warehouse.

"Brace yourself Wes. What's in here is... well it's not very good."

Wes started shaking as her reached for the nob. He opened the door and a wave of foul odor hit him right in the face. Unfortunately, that was not nearly as bad as what he saw right in front of himself.

There was a man on the floor, covered in his own blood and urine. Both his legs were jerked in a way legs shouldn't be. He had green slash marks all over his face and his eyes and mouth were opened wide with terror. You could almost hear the man screaming. The worst of it though, was his chest. It had been ripped open and his ribs were sprawling upwards in all directions. Wes almost threw up, but he kept his composure, barely.

"Alfred G. Hubber was his name," a voice said, "He was killed around 3:27 this morning. I'm Robert Brandon, World class detective."

A tall slender man in a business suit stuck out his arm to Wes. He was a little taller than average and he looked to be in a good shape. He had his black hair slicked back and wore glasses, but the first thing Wes noticed about this man were his eyes. They were bright green and almost hypnotizing.

Wes took his hand, " Wes Collins, Time Fo-, I mean, captain of the Silver Guardians."

Eric eyed Wes suspiciously. _Wes hasn't mentioned Time Force in months._

"Pleasure to meet you Wes," Robert said as he let go of his hand, "maybe you could help us out..."

"I'm sorry sir, but the silver guardians don't really deal with murder investigations."

Robert stared at Wes hard and grabbed a plastic bag from his pocket.

"We found this at the scene of the crime."

Eric and Wes were both shocked once they looked inside the bag. A triangular shaped badge with a blue circle in the middle as well as other markings and shapes. _Time Force_

"That's... that's impossible!" Wes shouted

"How did it get here!" Eric demanded ferociously.

"We were going to ask you the same question. Come with me!"

Eric and Wes followed Robert outside to his car. They drove to Robert's building and as soon as they entered his office, Robert locked the door and turned to them.

"Now, I understand that you are time force rangers and you still have one of these medallions in your possessions. However, I find it hard to believe that you were the culprits for two reasons: 1. You would have no need to commit a crime like this and 2. You aren't stupid enough to leave this behind."

"Here's reason number 3," Wes said as he took his medallion out of his pocket and threw it on Robert's desk, "I always keep it on me."

"Yes, I figured that much."

"Then how did this get here!" Eric demanded again.

"Well it's obvious isn't it?" Wes replied, "Someone's gone back in time. Someone from Time Force has left us his calling card, and my guess is, he wants us dead."

"I thought the same thing, but I think you should know, Mr Hubber was not just any old man. He was a great scientist and he was just on the verge of-"

Suddenly Robert was cut off as a beam of light crashed through the window hitting him full in the back. Wes caught on to him as Eric looked out the window to see a faint image of a man on some sort of hover-cycle. Eric jumped out the window to follow the murderer

"QUANTUM POWER!" Eric screamed and he morphed into the quantum ranger and as he morphed, his TF Eagle appeared and Eric flew off in his pursuit to catch the criminal.

"Eric wait!" Wes screamed in vain. He checked Robert's pulse. He was dead. Wes ran out the window in furry.

"TIME FOR TIME FORCE!" he shouted, "STRATA CYCLE!"

Wes morphed and flew off after Eric and the murderer.

Eric was gaining on the mysterious figure and just as he was about to catch him, the rider banked a hard right and fired at Eric. Eric maneuvered around his blasts, but the murderer was too quick and he caught the TF Eagle's right engine. _Impossible_, Eric thought, _He destroyed my engine with one blast!_

Eric tried with his remaining energy to jump up and attack the murderer but he came up short and quickly started falling as the murderer laughed with pleasure. Eric was falling too fast, he knew he was going to die. But suddenly, Wes swooped through the air and caught him.

"It took you long enough!" Eric said in relief. But this time, Wes was the one who wasn't laughing. He still had to catch the murderer. Then he saw a time portal open up and the murderer fly right through it. Wes gritted his teeth and slammed hard on the accelerator. The portal was closing up but Wes was inching closer and made it just in the nick of time!

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Wes's whole body was aching, but he was alive. He looked over at Eric. Eric was alive too. They both slowly started getting up until an all too familiar voice rung through Wes's ears.

"Time Force! You're under arrest for time shifting without autho-"

"Easy Jen, easy," Wes said as he slowly got up and turned to face her, "Your never good with hellos huh?"

Jen lowered her gun and stared hard at Wes.

"Your not Alex!" Jen shouted as she raised her gun at Wes, "You might look like him, but i can tell your just a fake, mutant!"

"Jen what are talking about! It's me! Wes!" Wes exclaimed.

"We don't know a Wes! And we certainly will not trust a criminal who has just killed a man form 2001! Do you have any idea what you have done to the time stream!"

"It's only been a year Jen and you don't remember me," Wes looked heartbroken, " And you too Trip! Katie, Lucas! Hell even circuit doesn't remember me?"

"How do you know our names?" Lucas asked perplexed.

"You guys really don't remember, do you... 2001? Fighting Ransik as time force rangers? The clock tower? You guys don't remember?"

"We never fought with you as time force rangers..." Trip explained.

"Then what do you call this?" Wes practically yelled as he pointed to his chrono-morpher.

At this all the rangers pointed their guns at Wes and Eric.

"So you're the thieves that took Alex's morpher! Oh if only Alex were here, he would send you straight to the junk-heap!"

"Easy Jen," called a voice, "This is no way to treat these guests to the year 3000. Your never good with hellos huh?"

They all turned to see Alex walk through them and shake hands with Wes and Eric.

"Wes, Eric. Nice to see you guys again."

"Alex look out! They have your morpher! They're criminals!"

"It's okay Jen, " Alex replied calmly, " Wes and Eric are friends of mine who retrieved my morpher for me."

"We didn't retrieve you fucki-"

"Yes," Eric said cutting off Wes with a quick jab to his side," It's always a pleasure doing business with you, _right Wes_?"

"Yeah... of course... a pleasure" Wes said catching Eric's emphasis on the last part of his sentence.

"It's mutual, my friends. Now, how bout we go back to headquarters so i can fill Wes and Eric in on our current problem. Both these men are excellent fighters and can help us a great deal."

"Sounds good, let's go." Eric said as he took a quick sideways glance at Wes. The other rangers looked confused, but as always, trusted and followed their leader back to Headquarters.

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Once everybody was back at headquarters and situated, Alex took Wes and Eric to his own personal office and made sure all doors were locked and all camera's deactivated.

"So, now can you fill us in on what the hell is going on here?"

"Yes, yes, Wes," Alex replied, "I'm really sorry for everything that's happened. I really wish it wasn't like this."

Alex sighed," After the rangers left the year 2001, we had their memories wiped of everything that had happened in the whole time period that they were stationed there."

"YOU WHAT?" Alex practically yelled.

"I'm really sorry Wes," Alex sighed again," It's protocol. I didn't want to do it and the rangers were very reluctant as well, but it had to be done."

Wes sunk in his chair tired from yelling, but Eric was thinking hard... something sounded wrong about that.

"What about you? Why wasn't your mind erased?" Eric replied while Wes suddenly eased up in his chair.

"Well, it was also protocol that the leader of time force knew this information."

"So just because your the leader of some little team you don't get your mind erased!?!" Wes yelled.

"No, not the leader of the power rangers, the leader of all of time force."


	2. Chapter 2

The time force rangers were restless inside the time force headquarters. Jen was constantly pacing, while Lucas just sat there staring his empty stare. Katie was sitting on a bar stool, swinging round and round, while Trip was operating on Circuit's defense systems. Otherwise, it was very quiet. Each ranger was thinking something different, but each ranger came back to the same question. _Why did those two rangers seem so familiar? _Jen in particular knew that someone wasn't telling the truth, and strangely enough, she thought it was Alex. She felt for some odd reason that the stranger she had encountered was telling the truth, but what was even stranger was that she felt she could _trust_ him. Which then, supported the strangers idea. Jen had never trusted anyone easy, a trait that she had picked up from Alex, but the stranger said that they had known each other. Hell he even knew her name! Jen knew that was the only way she could feel any bit of trust for anyone... But still, that was very far fetched, the year 2001? And he looked way too unstable to be a time force ranger, let alone the red ranger, the so-called "leader". And yet still... _He knew my name!_

Trip was steadily working on Circuit. Making upgrades, upping Circuit's defenses, but then he realized, he needed the upgrade disc in his room to continue the process. Hitting himself in the head, he told the others he'd be back shortly. When he got to his room, he found it much easier to work in that environment. There was too much tension in that room. _Why was everyone freaking out? _But even as he thought these words, he knew he was freaking out too.

"Ugh, Circuit, what do you think?" Trip sighed as he continued working.

"About what, Trip?" the robotic owl chimed.

"About those two guys. Wes and Eric. What do you think their deal is?"

"Well I dunno. If they were telling the truth, I think I at the very least would've remembered them in my databanks. I've not had a malfunction yet."

"I know Circuit, but it just feels like... I dunno, I feel like i know them. And when they were talking, it just... it just seems like they were being genuine. I mean innocent. I mean.. UGH! i don't even know what I mean anymore!"

"It's okay trip, I'm sure Alex will explain everything and it will all make sense again."

"I hope your right Circuit, I hope your right..."

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"When did you become the captain of Time Force?" said a dumbfounded Wes.

"Well, it wasn't easy, but through strong will and courage, I got promoted again and again until I became what I am today."

"Explains the nice office." Eric smirked.

"Okay, so back up a bit," Wes said, "What happened after you guys scrambled their brains?"

"Well after we wiped their memories and reprogrammed Circuit, I told the rangers that they had been attacked by Ransik and his men. I told them that with our combined efforts, we destroyed him, but we took a great damage as well. It took us months to recover and part of memory was lost from the battle. I also told them that after the battle, one of Ransik's men had survived the battle and had stolen my morpher, but because of the rangers valiant courage, they had all been given morphers too. They never really asked any more questions."

"So what do you suggest we do now?"

"For now, you could actually be of really good use to us on a case we're on right now. It invol-"

"No," Wes interrupted," what do want us to do about the rangers?"

"Well for now, just pretend that you are allies of mine who recovered my morpher. I'll say that your travel through time made you delusional and you thought you were the red ranger."

Now Wes was starting to get angry again, "So that's it huh? My friends are gone now. Nothing changes."

"Wes, I'm sorry it had to come to this, but what else can we do?"

"Tell them the fucking truth! How about that!"

Now Alex was getting angry, "Yeah! And break the rules! I am the captian of Time Force and I have to bring people to justice and keep the balance of time! Do you really think I would abandon protocol! I could go to jail for that and then we'd all be forced to forget _everything!"_

Eric and Wes were silent. Neither one of them looking Alex directly in the face. Wes was still furious, but there was nothing much he could say now.

"Now, there is a mission that Time Force are currently working on. I've taken the liberty to give you each a room here at the headquarters. You'll find the mission folder on your bed. Read it and I'll brief you again in the morning. And Wes," Alex looked at Wes with a bit of sadness in his eyes,"I'll need to take your morpher away from you again."

Wes didn't even hesitate. He didn't even care anymore. He took it off and tossed it onto his desk without even giving the morpher or Alex a second glance.

"Again I'm really sorry it has to come to this, but i need both of you to promise me you won't tell the rangers about the past."

"Fine." Eric responded

"Whatever." Wes replied as he got out of his seat. And with that the Quantum Ranger, and the former Red Ranger left the room.

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Wes was walking to his room alone while Eric went to check out the training grounds. Normally, Wes would be ecstatic to go train with Eric, but all he wanted to do now was soak his head. He wasn't even paying attention when he bumped straight into Jen.

"Oops. I'm sorry," Jen said, "Your name is Wes right? I'm Jen."

She stuck her arm out and looked at him with a smile, but Wes only walked by her and said, " I know"

Jen turned around and called after him,"Wait," she said as Wes turned around,"I think we may have gotten off on the wrong foot, and I just want you to know, that if you're friends with Alex then you're friends with me."

She stuck out her hand again and smiled at him, "I'm sorry... I don't think we can be friends."

Wes started walking away again, but stopped short when he heard Jen yelling again.

"You know, I don't know what your problem is but I was just trying to be nice! The least you could do is return the favor, jackass!"

Wes turned his head around just so he could see her, "I'm sorry, Jen." he said as tears started welling in his eyes. He kept walking until he came to his room and took a cold shower. Then he went straight to bed.

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_Was he crying? _ Jen thought to herself, _ What's his problem? _ Jen was even more confused now then she ever was. But before she could even think about it, her morpher chimed.

"Rangers, meet me in my office ASAP"

Great, it was Alex. Whenever he called, it meant something bad was happening. She prepared herself and walked over to the main office.

"Rangers," Alex said," as you already know, the two strangers that appeared today are Wes and Eric. They are good friends of mine and they will be staying here for a while and help us on or mission. I will be returning as the Red Time Force Ranger and lead you guys through the mission. Eric will also help as the Quantum Ranger, a new addition to the team."

"What about Wes?" Jen asked

"Wes is an excellent fighter and an outstanding leader, but for now, he will monitor us as we fight and help us if needed. Don't worry rangers, I trust Wes to be there for us when needed."

_Trust.... Trust...._ The word kept echoing through Jen's head... _Why does that word seem to bother me... It seems like... like..._

"Jen," Alex snapped her back to reality, "are you okay?"

"Yeah.... I'm just wondering. Wes was saying something about us fighting together, in 2001. But none of us seem to remember neither Wes nor Eric."

The rangers all nodded in agreement and Alex just said, "Don't worry about it Jen, Wes was just very lightheaded from the time travel and he was starting to imagine he, himself was the Red Ranger," Alex started chuckling, " But don't worry, I talked to him just earlier and he doesn't even recall saying anything like that."

"But he knew our names," Jen remarked.

Alex was actually caught off-guard there and for a second or two he didn't know what to say," Well you see, I've known Wes and Eric for a long time. And I... I... hired them to protect you guys if anything bad ever happened. In fact, they were the ones that pulled our bodies out after Ransik was destroyed," Alex said, pulling a lie right out of his ass.

"But why didn't you ever tell us?"

"Jen, Jen. Just relax. Trust me, Wes and Alex are good people, and without them we might not even be standing here today."

There was that word again... Trust. The word echoed through Jen's body to the rhythm of her heartbeat. _What's wrong with me!_

"Jen? Earth to jen..."

"Huh? Ugh sorry Alex."

"It's okay Jen, obviously you have all had a rough day. Why don't you guys just rest up. We'll have another briefing tomorrow."

"Ok. Later boss man," Katie said. Then the rest of the rangers said their goodbyes and left the office.

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"Jen," Alex said as he got into bed with her, "When are we going to get married?"

Jen looked down at her hand and saw the tiny band of gold rapped on her finger. Jen had always loved Alex with all her heart and when he proposed to her after Ransik's death, it was the happiest day of her life. But then, as the wedding day got closer and closer, Jen felt more and more sick. She knew it wasn't cold feet, something just felt... wrong. So now it's been a year later and she's still postponing the wedding date.

"I..I don't know Alex." Jen said nervously.

Alex turned Jen around and looked her straight in the face, "Jen, I love you more than anything in the world and I want to spend the rest of my life with you."

"I do too," Jen said sadly,"but if you really love me Alex, you'll understand that i need time. I...I'm just not ready for this kind of thing."

"Jen, I've given you a year already. Please, just tell me what's wrong."

"I don't know Alex! I just don't know! I love you and I want to marry you, but at the same time, something feels just horribly wrong! I feel like I'm letting someone down."

"Letting someone down? Jen, what are you talking about?"

"I don't know!" Jen was yelling at him now," And I don't want to talk about it anymore! Goodnight Alex!"

Alex didn't respond and lied down in silence.

*******************************************************************************************************************

"So Lucas, What do you think?"

Lucas looked up from his mirror and saw Katie looking straight at him, "They're quiet and they keep to themselves. That's good enough for me."

Lucas went back to his hair and katie smiled, "What about you Trip?"

"Well, I don't know, they seem like nice people."

"Yeah, but I'm talking about what they said. I mean don't you find Alex's explanation a little bit fishy?"

"Well, why would Alex lie to us?"

"Yeah," Lucas cut in,"and why do you all of a sudden trust those guys? We don't even know them!"

"Well that's just the thing, for some reason, I feel like I do know them."

"Actually Lucas... I think I know what she means," Trip said,"It's like I knew them once, in some other time or some other life! But... you'd think I'd remember..."

Lucas just looked at them in thought. What were the thinking? Alex was their captain and he would never lie to them.

"Maybe we should get some rest," Lucas suggested,"that way we can relax our minds a bit."

"Yeah, your right Lucas. Let's go Trip."

The rangers left to the rooms. Neither one of them actually did sleep through the night.

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"Come in," Wes said sleepily.

"Damn Wes," Eric said jokingly,"Are you always in bed?"

"Ha-ha. What do you want?"

"Well, have you read the mission folder?"

"Of course not, what's up?"

Eric rolled his eyes,"Time Force is after the same guy who killed Mr. Hubber. Apparently a time force cadet stole a new device that Time Force had been working on. A chrono-skimmer. It's a portable device that let's you go anywhere in time. Even the future. He used it to go back in time to kill this Mr. Hubber. The data banks say that he was a scientist in the middle of a great invention but since his death, nobody knew what it was."

"But remember Robert? He was saying something about that. If he was a detective on the case and he knew what Mr. Hubber was inventing, wouldn't others know too."

"That's what I thought too, so this morning I checked the history books and searched for a Robert Brandon. Wes... Robert Brandon never existed."

Wes sat there and started at Eric, "We should probably run this by Alex, he'll know what to do."

"Wes that's another thing I wanted to talk about," Eric said,"I don't think we can trust Alex."

"What?" Wes said taken aback, "Why not?"

"Wes, I know he's helped us in the past, but... something he said... it just doesn't feel right. And I know he's now the captain of Time Force, but I don't know... for now, I think we should keep our distance."

Wes nodded his. He understood Eric and he felt the same way about Alex as well.

"And Wes," Eric said,"I know it's hard, but i think we should also take Alex's advice and stay away from the other rangers. I know they were your friends Wes, but they're not your friends anymore."

"Yeah, I understand," Wes said. Eric's words really hurt him, but he was right.

"I'm sorry man..." Eric said sympathetically," but uh, how bout some target practice, I swear, they have the best training programs here."

"Maybe later, I was actually thinking about taking a run around Time Force. Get myself a little acquainted with my environment and clear my head a bit."

"Sounds good man, I'll probably still be in there by the time you're done."

"Okay, cool see you then."

And with that, Eric left leaving Wes alone in his room. Wes slowly got into his running clothes and before he left, he went to his SG uniform. He searched through the pockets of his suit until he found what he was looking for. He always kept these pictures on his person, it helped him remember the good times he used to have. There they were: Trip was on the far right next to Jen who was finally loosening up for once. Katie was right next to Jen, smiling as always, and then Lucas just getting his head to fit into the picture. He pulled the next one out and saw a picture that made him smile. Jen was annoyed and trying to work while he was grabbing her face and kissing her on the cheek. Lucas, Trip, Katie, and Circuit were in the background laughing. _Those goof-balls _Wes thought. Wes then put the pictures back into his suit and went outside to start his run.

There was a cool spring breeze outside while Alex was running. He saw people playing and laughing; and that's when he realized how peaceful the world is without any crime, any Ransik's or Frax's trying to rule the world. However, when he turned the corner, he saw cyclobots attacking innocent civilians. _What the? How the heck did they get here?_

Wes ran straight at them to attack when out of nowhere, Alex and the rangers sprung up in front of him in morphed from.

"It's okay Wes," Alex said,"We got this one. Okay! Rangers! Use the formation I taught you!"

The rangers started fighting the cyclobots but Alex formation was slowing them down. They quickly regrouped.

"Everybody hang on!" Alex said.

"They're just way too powerful for us!" Jen screamed, " What are we going to do Wes?"

"What?" Lucas said.

"Wes?" Katie asked.

"I...I mean, Alex." Jen recovered.

"Jen let's just try to stay focused, got it?" Alex said angrily.

"I'm sorry Alex, I... I didn't mean to-"

"Just forget about it," Alex interrupted,"Rangers! Second formation! Now!"

The rangers kept on fighting and yet they were still losing. How on earth could they be losing to just cyclobots? Soon enough, all the cyclobots were lined up, ready to fire on the fallen rangers.

"QUANTUM POWER!" Eric came flying through the air and attacked the cyclobots single handedly blasting ten at a time!

Soon enough Eric was destroying the last few cyclobots when one snuck up behind him and prepared to shoot.

"Eric look out!" Wes jumped and kicked the cyclobot square in the chest and destroyed the rest with his bare hands.

The rangers stared in awe at these two men who had just defeated an army of cyclobots in seconds when they couldn't have with five men!

"Power Down!" Eric said and he de-morphed back to his regular form.

"All right Eric!" Wes shouted,"Just like good old times man! Man, I needed this, I can't believe I've gone months without kicking some cyclobot ass!"

"I know exactly what you mean! It feels so much better to get out there. And when you jum-"

Alex cleared his throat,"Well, it looks like we're going to need more practice," Alex said through his teeth, slowly turning to face his team, "won't we?"

"Yes sir." all the rangers said in unison. Wes didn't like this. He hated seeing his team worked and treated like this, but what could he do.

"Rangers, Wes and Eric, report to headquarters, we shall start debriefing shortly. Eric nodded and gave Wes a look that said _Remember, don't tell Alex _and then they left.

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"I assume you have finished your job?" a dark ominous figure said.

"Yes my lord," he crouched before him, "All is going according to plan."

"Excellent work. You have done well, my son."


End file.
